OPERATiON KiSARAGi
by Millenia
Summary: Never one to pass up Materia,Yuffie finds herself dragged into a bad situation, Assassins trying to kill her are an everyday occurrence.Having gotten on the bad side of a smuggling ring she tries to figure out the woes of life & seek help from avalanche
1. Chapter 1

DiSCLAiMER:I do not own any characters from FFVII, they are copyright to SQUARE ENiX.

OPERATiON KiSARAGi

Chapter 1

…One of those Days…

* * *

The deafening pounding of rain beating mercilessly on the roof was the only sound heard. Occasionally there would be a rumble of thunder here and there with a few bolts of lightning but what was one to expect of a thunderstorm. It was another one of those days, the ones that were full of the same routine. Nothing new had been heard about the strange weather, in a way it was refreshing. 

If not boring at the same time.

It didn't usually rain in Mideel, it was always the same weather, some sunshine here and there but nothing overbearing.

"Ugh… No… I don't wanna get up... "

Those were the disgruntled words of a certain ninja. It had been a good three years since the defeat of Sephiroth and things had gone back to normal. Towns were being rebuilt and mako reactors shut down permanently, the planet was in need of something new to help sustain human life. Mako reactors were not one of these.

Yuffie had gone into an isolation of sorts, Wutai no longer held anything remotely significant or of any value to the young ninja. She instead chose to continue her pointless wanderings upon the planet in search of more materia.

Of course, this was a rather crude look at life. Materia snatching and random encounters with monsters that led her with various cuts and bruises would have to get old to the now nineteen year old ninja.

"Get up! You've paid for one night only, and guess what? That night is over"

The innkeeper was a rather annoying guy. He had a bad habit of being both rude and disgusting at the same time. Yuffie had caught the creep leering at her when she had first walked in. It only helped to remind her of her state of dress and how she was in rather desperate need of shopping.

"Ugh… five more minutes."

Glaring at the shinobi ninja, he sighed before he walked out. He would be coming back later to remind her she only had paid enough for one night and that was it. He had more important people coming here anyways.

A flash of lightning and the low rumbling of thunder alerted Yuffie to her surroundings. Stretching slowly like a cat, she sleepily opened her eyes; it had been a while since she'd had the chance to sleep in a bed and she was damn well going to stay in bed as long as possible. The rain and thunder only helped give more cause to her decision. Who would want to go shopping and traveling in this weather anyways? She gazed about the small room she had rented for the night, why was she here anyways?

_Oh right…I left Wutai…hmm what else? Oh yeah… I forgot about THAT problem… so much for aimless wandering… _

Slowly rising into a sitting position she winced as her muscles protested loudly. A small glowing orb caught her attention, growling she ignored it. That little orb had cost her quite a beating.

She had to travel nonstop too so that she could recuperate and not freeze to death. Deciding to forget about her train of thought about that particular subject she'd think more about non important things. Such as beds and food.

She missed having a nice bed to sleep upon and a nice hot meal. On her wanderings the cold ground was her bed, and whichever monster she happened to slain first would be her meal. It of course would be chewy and not so deliciously flavored but rather plain, for where was one to get spices? She, of course, always carried some black pepper with her. It helped give SOME taste to the barely identifiable yet edible creature she had slain and cooked. That and she had this weird thing for red peppers. If they were available damn straight she was going to chop them up and put them in her meal… like her good ol' granny said spicy food was good for the heart.

That and only a complete wuss would be incapable of eating something so hot. Yeah, if Yuffie was to marry somebody someday he better damn well like spicy food.

The rain had slowly stopped and was now a slight drizzle, barely there but still noticeable. Deciding she'd slept in late enough she got slowly got up and headed to the bathroom. A shower was another thing she missed, it was hard to take a long good bath in a lake when you had to make sure no crazy creature was going to sneak up on you and make you their next breakfast or dinner... whichever came first.

Thus Yuffie stripped her clothes off jumped into the shower with the water running on HOT, and proceeded to belt out the song she bangs she bangs in one of the most tone deaf voices ever heard.

Nearby neighbors having heard her scream out "She bangs! She bangs! Whooo!" opened their window before bellowing out "SHUDDUP!"

Hey, if she was going to be up this early then the rest of the world should be up too right?

* * *

A lone figure was the only animate being seen walking through the street as it drizzled slightly upon him. His gold spikes hanged limply, but still stubbornly refused to flatten down. 

It was one of his characteristics, something that would never change; being a chocobo head.

Smiling slightly to himself, the mercenary continued to trudge through the mud as he made his way slowly to Eternal Heaven; it was a new bar that Tifa had set up herself. The steps leading up were slippery but nonetheless he gained traction and continued upwards. Opening the door, his senses were assaulted with the smell of alcohol, the masculine scent of men and amazingly to himself the sweet smell of strawberries. He glanced around till his cobalt blue eyes crashed with her wine colored eyes

"Teef…"

Tifa smiled, it had been a while since she'd seen those eyes.

"Cloud! Come here and have a drink!"

Smiling he proceeded to walk over to her, carefully picking his way through the throngs of people sitting. Tifa got a lot of business, her mixing skills were world renown and in a place like Midgar it was good to get away from all of the hustle and bustle of construction and the loss of many lives.

"It's been a while, Teef."

"It sure has! How have you been? Did you see Cid? How are Shera and he doing? I heard they were on their way to having another little boy."

Cloud smiled, Tifa forever the one to be keeping tab on her friends.

"Yeah, Shera is 5 months along and Cid is surprisingly still as nervous as the first time she was pregnant. He won't smoke around her and doesn't let the woman do anything by herself."

Tifa smiled, even through all the verbal abuse that man put Shera through she still loved him and Cid still happened to have his finer points. They continued to chat, catching up a little bit. Tifa of course did most of the talking; Cloud never really was much of a talker. Even when he was leader he said only enough to be said and that was that.

Tifa swallowed thickly, before deciding to bring up the subject of one of their former comrades.

"have you… heard from Yuffie?"

Cloud frowned; their young ninja friend had been a good ally. Even though she had stolen from them they missed her bubbly attitude and cheerful appearance. Shaking his head he sighed, after the defeat of Sephiroth everyone kept in touch, even surprisingly so Vincent. Yuffie too, she went back to Wutai after staying there for 2 months she upped and disappeared. No one had heard a word from her since. Everybody refused to admit she was dead, Godo said she did this kind of thing all the time. Hopefully they'd hear from her soon…

"Oh Cloud, I forgot to mention. Reno is here."

Cloud glanced at her, confusion evident on his face.

"Reno?"

"Yes, he said that… he had some news that might interest you. He's in the backroom."

Nodding his head he stood up and took a swig of the drink Tifa had made for him before walking to the backroom. It was just full of alcohol and other miscellaneous items that were not of to much importance to Tifa.

Opening the door his eyes focused on fiery red hair before he fully realized he was staring at Reno. Narrowing his eyes slightly he stepped fully into the room before closing the door.

"Reno"

Said redhead turned his head towards the short blonde, he was lazily drinking a beer.

"Yo Cloud"

Reno grinned, the twin scars on his cheeks reaching upwards slightly to his eyes, the group Turks still existed. They helped Reeve and their work wasn't as degrading as before. They were bodyguards and intelligence to headquarters. Problems that were arising and that needed to be snuffed out got sent to them. Their first way was to negotiate, in a new world there was new rules. Bloodshed would not be first priority, it was second.

"You got something for me?"

Reno grinned lazily like a cheshire cat,

"Always the one to cut right to the chase. How about Tifa mix us a few drinks and we catch up on old times?"

Cloud growled, his blue eyes were turning colder by the minute,

"I believe you have some news for me Reno."

"Oh! That." Smirk. He took another swig from his beer before sitting down at a table, there were playing cards on it along with some money. He probably had been playing somebody earlier. "Well, I heard you guys been searching for that little ninja of yours, and lucky for you I got news."

Cloud's eyes turned hopeful, Tifa would be happy to hear news of her friend.

"She's dead."

Instantly, he felt a deep pit of disdain and bitterness in his stomach, only Reno could make bad news appear like good news. "What do you mean dead?"

Reno sighed, "Sit down Cloud, it's a long story." Cloud obliged, grabbing a seat and sitting across from Reno.

"Well, she's not dead yet, but she's going to be. Word is, she ran away from Wutai relinquishing leadership to instead run about the world; poor Yuffie though got mixed into the wrong crowd."

Cloud narrowed his eyes, _wrong crowd? Yuffie? Sure, she's a thief but she's not the kind of person to do extremely bad things. _"What do you mean wrong crowd?"

"Wrong crowd as in people like me. Yuffie made some friends, turns out her friend wasn't really a friend. He was apart of a smuggling ring, they called themselves "The Raging Bull".

Yuffie and him got close he let a few things leak and they would strike strategically at some points to uh… relieve some passerby's of their objects. She was forever the thief. Anyhow, Yuffie has no idea of the importance of the things she was robbing of these people. He just said really good materia, gave her an idea of some of their powers and she bought it.

The problem is… he had ulterior motives. He wanted to get a hold of a certain item, it of course had to be a materia otherwise it would hold little interest to our ninja. Anyhow, it was being researched by Neo-Shinra scientists. New kind of summon, instead of the summon doing their thing and leaving these ones could be summoned to stay as long as the user wanted and do whatever command that was wished.

They could take human forms etc it was still being researched. With such a powerful summon on their side, these guys could infiltrate any base get what they want and leave. This thing can take on any form and if controlled by the wrong person imagine all the things they could get away with. Shit, I'd steal one of those if I could."

Cloud narrowed his eyes on the Redhead.

Reno grinned at him innocently, looking anything but the innocent kid he was trying to be. _You like to narrow your eyes at me a lot huh_

"But I wouldn't, cause I'm a good law abiding citizen. Yeah uh… back on topic. She's got one of these in her possession, good thing that she can't activate it right now otherwise we'd be in a shit load of trouble. Anyhow, the ring wants it back. They want it back now; with that kind of power they'd be unstoppable. They've got their top assassins out there ordered to retrieve the materia and kill the girl."

Cloud leaned back in his seat before sighing, "This is where I come in right?"

Reno grinned, "And here I thought all blondes were slow. Yeap, you got it. You of course can bring all your buddies in but we need that materia. From what Intel says, Yuffie was last seen heading towards Mideel. Were not sure though, but our trackers are on her."

"if you've already got trackers why do you need Avalanche?"

"She'd notice a bunch of our trackers sixty miles away, she'd automatically bolt. She trusts you guys though."

Cloud groaned slightly, before slowly massaging his temples. He just hoped to lead an ordinary life, one with no Sephiroth or annoying brats or stupid Shinra. Yuffie was a friend, no matter how annoying she was.

_I have a feeling I'm going to regret this. _"When do we start?"

Reno grinned, once again reminding Cloud of the Cheshire cat. Cloud hated that damn cat, just like that stupid movie. One day he would bash Reno's head in.

"Now"

AN: So, a slow start I know. But of course no story is a story without some foundation correct! ;D sooo uhm. Yeah. Il be updating sporadically. Since I cant even keep to my HW due dates lol ; but hope the beginning isn't to long or boring.. ;


	2. Chapter 2

OPERATiON KiSARAGi

Chapter 2

Of Hamburgers and Fries

* * *

The rain had stopped a while ago and it was only to Yuffie's benefit. Grinning, the ninja strapped her prized possession to her back, her shuriken, and quickly gathered about her things. She'd return the damn room later on tonight. Not like that stupid innkeeper had anyone important coming. With that said, Yuffie stepped outside into the quickly dissipating rain and slowly sunshine began to show through.

"Hmm... First stop would of course be NEW clothes. These damn threads just ain't cutting it no more."

Yuffie still traveled about in the same old khaki shorts & green sweater. Not surprisingly though, they didn't fit as well. Over the years Yuffie had begun to mature. Her once stick figure now was that of a curvy woman. She had not grown any taller, to her dismay; her hair had grown rather long thought. It was now down to the middle of her back and the chocolate locks were exceptionally soft.

_Tifa's got her boobs and I've got my hair. Hmm… I guess it's a fair trade. Hehe, course with knockers like those they'd probably only end up blinding me when I fight… then again the opponent would probably be blind too. Hahaha! Sucker._

With that train of thought in mind, she fluttered over to various clothing stores; trying to find something that would not hinder her in battle or flash the world her newly acquired assets. Finally she decided upon something simple, a pair of camouflage shorts, with a white tank top. Her shoes were in serious need of some new one's so she bought some new sneakers; they were like the old ones but were just a simple color of black. She already had a load of materia, now it was time to get something to eat.

Walking at a hurried pace she reached a small restaurant called Mideel Haven; and boy did Yuffie consider it haven. Looking around she spotted a table and grinned before seating herself and calling a waiter over.

"Welcome to Mideel Haven, I'm Jin. How may I help you?"

Yuffie smiled, she could literally smell the delicious aroma wafting about the room. Hmm… what did she really need right now?

"I'd like 1 large cherry Pepsi, 3 large cheeseburgers and a bunch of French fries."

Jin looked at her confusedly, such a young woman as herself could not eat that much. Shouldn't she be worrying about weight or something?

"Ah um… is that all?"

"OOH! Do you guys have like those little umbrella things! I want one of those in my drinks please!" Yuffie smiled cheekily at him before winking.

He simply nodded his head, took the menu that Yuffie hadn't even bothered to look at and walked away with her order.

During that waiting period, a young man who looked to be in his twenties came and sat down at her table. Yuffie narrowed her eyes, _who the hell does he think he is. This is MY eating time buster! _

The young man smiled before introducing himself, "Hey there pretty thing, the name's David. I couldn't help but wonder what a pretty woman such as you was doing sitting here all by herself."

Barely audible Yuffie grumbled, "Trying to avoid creeps like you."

"I'm sorry what was that?"

Grinning to herself she smiled sweetly, "Oh nothing. Say Dave, would you like to join me?" Yuffie grinned seductively before placing her hand lightly on his knee.

David grinned, obviously thinking he scored, "Well since I'm already here, I don't see why not."

Hey she could be hot and seductive too you know!

Smiling to Yuffie he called the waiter over and ordered a meal too.

After enduring his endless chatter about how much he could weight lift and other things that Yuffie seriously found non important her meal arrived. Grinning she interrupted him, "Let's eat! In my country it's a custom to eat without talking, it's rude to both you and the food your given kay?"

David looked confused for a minute before nodding his head and began to eat slowly. Yuffie on the other hand, dived straight in. It felt like FOREVER when she'd last had a hamburger and some fries. There wasn't anywhere on the good ol' open plains where a hamburger joint was set up.

In the time it had taken Yuffie to devour her meal, David her buddy was still working on his drink.

_I knew he'd be useful for something. _

Smiling cheekily, she gathered herself together before standing up, David looked up in confusion, "Where you goin' sweetie?"

"No where, I just got to use the little girl's restroom, don't worry Ill be back in a jiffy!" David smiled before lightly smacking her ass as Yuffie walked away. She stopped, winced, turned around and gave him a hug instead.

Then she proceeded in the wrong direction of the restroom, like he'd notice anyways.

"Why am I the LUCKY one to attract attention? Unwanted, potentially harmful to my health attention to be exact!" Yuffie shouted out in a high pitched whiny voice

_I should have clobbered his ass! _

**_At least you got a free meal and not to mention some cash. _**

Yuffie held up the wallet she had borrowed from David, not only had he so graciously paid for her meal, he even asked her to hold onto his wallet what a nice guy.

"And boy is he loaded! Whooo imagine the hamburgers I could buy!"

Smiling to herself, she continued her trek back to her room at the inn.

There were two things Yuffie noticed when she walked into the inn; the first was the innkeeper was missing. The second was the spare key to her room was gone.

She narrowed her eyes, this was indeed suspicious.

_Maybe he just rented my room out? _

Her instinct did not agree though, sighing before wondering why her, she pulled out her prized possession; her shuriken. Slowly she began to trek silently up the stairs to her room.

Upon coming to the hallway, she noticed the door to her room was slightly ajar and noises could be heard from within.

"Find it?"

"No"

Yuffie raised an eyebrow; just who did they think they are. No one barges into HER room and gets away with it. Well … technically speaking anyways.

She grinned before grabbing a flash grenade, slowly she approached the door. They were still rummaging about; probably looking for one of the many materias' she had stolen over her travels.

A floorboard creaked, and the shuffling in the room stopped.

_Shit! Dammit, here goes nothing!_

Bracing herself Yuffie, ran into the room stopped and grinned at them.

"It's her!"

"You won't get me this way suckers!" Then threw the flash bomb and turned around covering her eyes. The two men surprised, immediately looked at the bomb and then it exploded and bright light blinded their vision.

They stumbled to the ground holding their eyes as Yuffie ran in grabbed her bag, scrawled a YK on one of their cheeks with a sharpie she coincidently happened to carry around (just like her black pepper) threw the key at them and proceeded to jump out the window. She rolled once then stopped pulled herself to her feet and ran like a bat out of hell.

* * *

"How about me and good ol' Tifa here work together or something? We can get to know one another better. Her and I can scan the perimeter of areas check and see if the locals seen anything you know that kind of thing. What do you say about it Blondie?" 

Cloud growled, there was no way in hell he was letting Tifa be alone with HIM of all people.

"No."

Tifa had gone off to call all the Avalanche members and get them together. It would take a good two days for all of them to show up, seeing as how they all lived in different parts of the world. For now, the Turks and Cloud were staying at her place. It had plenty of rooms and space. Her new bar was much better than her old one. Her countertops were mahogany wood, and her mixing utensils stainless steel. The walls were a deep red with pictures of her and avalanche in the day. The tables in which people sat and were served at were just wood that you could buy for cheap.

She had her share of bar fights and wanted the things they could break to be easily replaceable. Upstairs she had a total of 6 rooms. They all had two twin beds in them with one big dresser. Except for one room, it was her master bedroom and it had one king size bed. The theme was for an Asian idea. She loved it to death and had taken great time and care in it along with her new bar.

Reno frowned; he just wanted to get to know the brunette a little better that's all. He wouldn't hit on her… much. Grinning to himself he lazily withdrew a cigarette from its carton before lighting it. While she was busy contacting her friends, Reno and Cloud would go over the plan and figure out where to start.

Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose, Reno and he had been discussing the redhead and Tifa for the past hour. He didn't see why the stupid redhead wanted to get her alone anyways.

"Why yo"

"Why's it so important anyways?"

Reno took another drag; boy did he love his nicotine.

"Shuddup Reno." Glancing upwards, there stood Elena, behind her was Rude. They looked impeccable as ever, their Turk suits neat and clean; her hair short and out of the way and Rude with his glasses on. He never took them off, except for certain occasions.

"Lena! Where ya been!"

The young blonde narrowed her eyes at him; sometimes she wondered how he could be so dense one minute then so serious the next.

"Out on that case? The one where were trying to get more leads for your dumb ass?"

Reno grinned, before lazily walking up to her and slinging an arm around her shoulders, "Aww Lena babe, you mad that I left you all alone with big ol' Rude?"

Hissing at him she shoved his arm off, "Get off me." Then proceeded to stalk over and sit down at a table. Cloud noticed the black briefcase she carried and also noted her gun. Even if they had made peace between one another he still didn't trust them fully. His sword was within grabbing distance.

Elena ignored them and instead set her briefcase down on the table and opened it up. Inside was a laptop, probably hooked up to the main servers in Midgar and more than likely had access to satellite.

"Rude and I found some interesting things after doing some research and of course speaking to people. We visited Mideel this morning, seems there was a young girl by the description of Yuffie. She high tailed it though. That and the innkeeper is dead. So I'm guessing she knows someone is after her."

Tifa walked in at the moment, "Elena! How nice to see you." She smiled pleasantly; ever since they had made peace she and Elena had surprisingly become pretty good friends. She knew the Turk cared deeply for a certain silent guy and that she was finally over the loss of Tseng.

Elena glanced up and smiled before getting up and giving Tifa a hug. "It's nice to see you! How have you been?"

The girls seeming to ignore what was going on around them or what they had just been talking about immersed themselves in chatter.

Reno rolled his eyes, before lighting up another cigarette. _Tch, women._

Cloud annoyed, cleared his throat and looked imploringly at Elena.

"Oh! Right, sorry." A pink color tinged her cheeks as she was slightly embarrassed before scuttling back over to the laptop and began again.

"Anyhow, as I was saying she was last seen in Mideel. The room that she was in was ransacked so it's obvious they're looking for the materia. Another thing is we found blood."

Tifa covered her mouth; obviously she was worried about her young friend. She still considered the young ninja a child in so many ways. "Was it Yuffie's?"

Elena smiled sadly, "Were not sure. There still performing DNA tests on it, and we don't exactly have her blood on record but we'll definitely be able to tell if it's a male or not. If it is someone hopefully we can try and match it."

Cloud ran a hand through his blonde locks, sometimes he wondered if he was ever just going to have a nice normal life.

"What else did you find out?"

Elena looked at Rude hesitantly, as though she was thinking about something. Rude simply nodded his head at her to continue and she listened.

"Um… we've also received reports about a young man in the smuggling ring who is also after Yuffie. There are a number of different guys tracking her but this one stood out the most. He was one of those faces people would not be able to forget if they saw it again…"

Cloud looked at her, his blue eyes willing her to continue.

"He matches the description of a former comrade and friends of yours, Vincent Valentine."

* * *

AN: so what chu guys think of it so far? Good bad? Boring? Eh **please leave some reviews** hehe ; iid like to know. Cuhz I mean all dese ppl seen it buh nobody leaves a review to lemme kno if its borin or not ; 


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